Identify the organizational characteristics of ICUs that enable them to accommodate increasing strain safely.

Career Goals: Dr. Halpern is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. He received both his MD and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. The grantee would like to become a leader in critical care health services research with a focus on improving the safety of care provided to critically ill patients.

Progress to Date: The required patient- and unit-level data at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania have been prospectively acquired and are being entered into an Oracle clinical database.

Future Plans: Data collection will continue through the summer and fall and the clinician interview will begin in the summer and continue through the end of 2010.